The Effects of High Median Age on Currency of Resources in Community College Library Collections (original) (raw)
Research Library Collections in a Changing Universe: Four Points of View
College & Research Libraries, 1984
In 1977 the Cornell University Libraries received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to study collection development and management. The immediate concern was to develop and test techniques that would allow Cornell's libraries, and academic libraries in general, to control their collections and collecting costs in a period of financial crisis. The "Cornell University Libraries' Project for Collection Development and Management'' (or the I I Mellon Project, ''as it came to be known), experienced shifts in both emphasis and personnel over time.
2016
The somewhat daunting task posed by the Provost was to consider the future of the academic library, both in the national sense and, more specifically, at the University of Florida. Her interest in these issues was sparked by the rapid changes occurring in libraries over recent years, changes that present challenges and opportunities. Given the importance of libraries in the academic community, are the UF libraries responding accordingly or poised to respond? She asked the committee to consider the next decade: what critical issues should Central Administration focus upon for maximum benefit to the library? And of more immediate moment, the impending retirements of the library directors in both the Smathers and Health Center libraries mean new leadership, with potentially new directions. Our charge was to prepare a report with recommendations. The committee began by educating itself on the current status of academic libraries by reading the latest literature, gaining input from knowledgeable faculty, staff, and students, and consulting with outside experts. From that study, five issues surfaced for detailed consideration. The body of this report offers details, data, and rationales that flesh out the following notes: Comparative Analysis-detailed comparisons of UF libraries with relevant peers indicate UF's spending lags theirs by roughly a third, illustrating a need for increased operating funds, as well as certain types of new space. Librarians and Library Services-the increasingly more complex job duties of librarians calls for hiring those trained as experts in new technology, the recognition of this professionalism, and the introduction of programs to gain full use of such talents. Collection Balances-the inevitable shift toward digital acquisitions should not mask the need for continued attention to printed materials, particularly in the humanities. Role in the Capital Campaign-using as models the library targets in other academic capital campaigns, UF should assume an appropriate funding goal (suggested $25 million) that recognizes the central importance of the library. Integration of the UF Libraries-after a comparison of many important issues, advantages and disadvantages, the current separate system is favored. Visualization Environment) and the NAVE (New Automated Virtual Environment) Lab of UF's Digital World's Institute in the College of Fine Arts. The "library of the 21 st century" is thus a time-honored site enabled by a diverse set of technologies that expresses and facilitates humanity's need to order and understand its world by recovering, analyzing, archiving, producing, and transmitting knowledge in both local and global contexts. I. Institutional Comparisons In considering what the future holds for UF libraries, it was first important to determine where we now stand, establishing a baseline for recommendations in this report. Traditionally, academic libraries have been ranked by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Currently, the ARL bases its rankings on five measures: volumes held, volumes added, current serial titles, total operating expenditures, and number of professional and support staff. As examples, the 2003-2004 rankings show Michigan State ranked as 39, Florida 38, Arizona 30, Ohio State 21, Wisconsin 11, Berkeley 4, and Harvard 1. Libraries with top ARL rankings are usually at large institutions and have histories of stable and adequate funding. In this report we compare the University of Florida's library funding, both total and by major category, to that at other libraries. We choose two comparison groups. The first is ARL libraries at five large land-grant institutions(a "peer" group) with medical and law schools, and the second is all American universities that report data to ARL. Universities in the first group are close to us in size and mission, so that unadjusted expenditure comparisons are meaningful. That is not the case with the second group, which contains over eighty universities with more widely varying size and missions. To make comparisons meaningful, statistical methods are used to adjust expenditures for the number of students, the number of faculty, the presence of law and medical schools, and U.S. News & World Report rankings. For both comparisons, the latest statistics available represent the 2003-2004 academic year.
Setting the Course: The Role of Special Collections in the Library
1993
Betty Bengtson, in her presentation at this conference, says that where general collections have become more "homogenized .... it is in OUf special collections that the distinctiveness of our research libraries will be maintained" (see page 92 in this issue). I have been concerned about using the term mainstream as a metaphor for library orientation. Bengtson's image of whitewater canoeing gave focus to the source of my uneasiness: we are in real trouble, not only in special collections, but in real trouble as libraries in general if uncontrolled forces sweep us along and our role becomes one of reaction rather than active policy-making. Are we only to bob along on rafts hoping to navigate a current over which we have no control, or is QllT true responsibility to direct the path the stream itself will take? Special collections libraries are facing two issues: what should we become in the future, and in some cases-such as the Kansas City Public Library example (in which the library decided to sell off most of its rare books)-should we exist at all? I will return to the latter question. Let us begin with where we are headed. The glut of information and the financial black hole of technology might be the worst of the uncontrolled "streams" if we let these library trends control us. Research libraries, whose special collections are at the center of original research, are evolving from providing resources for knowledge to "information centers." As university librarians try to balance budgets, they are latching on to cliches, such as the "access vs. ownership" and "just in time vs. just in case" phrases in collection development, as William Jones has noted (see his article, pp. 80 ff. of this issue). The seduction of technology and the gateway to other library resources through the Internet have opened the floodgates for these approaches. Special collections librarians must take the position of challenging our directors to step out of this flood